MR-TOF with Frequent Pulsing
U.S. Pat. No. 5,017,780, incorporated herein by reference, discloses a multi-reflecting time-of-flight mass spectrometers with a folded ion path (MR-TOF). Ion confinement is improved with a set of periodic lenses. MR-TOF reaches resolving power in the range of 100,000. When combined with orthogonal accelerator (OA), the MR-TOF has low duty cycle, usually below 1%. When combined with a trap converter, the space charge of ion packets affect MR-TOF resolution, at number of ions per packet per shot being above 1E+3 ions. Accounting for a 1 ms flight time in MR-TOF, this corresponds to a generally maximal signal under 1E+6 per peak per second.
To improve both duty cycle and space charge throughput, WO2011107836, incorporated herein by reference, discloses an open trap electrostatic analyzer, wherein ion packets are no longer confined in the drift direction, so that any mass specie is presented by multiple signals corresponding to a span in number of ion reflections. The method solves the problem of OA duty cycle and the problem of space charge limitation within the MR-TOF analyzer. However, spectral decoding fails at ion fluxes above 1E+8 ions a second.
WO2011135477, incorporated herein by reference, discloses a method of encoded frequent pulsing (EFP) to solve the same problem in a generally more controlled manner and to allow an extremely rapid profile recording of any upfront separation, down to 10 μs time resolution. The spectral decoding step is well suitable for recording fragment spectra in tandem MS, since spectral population is under 0.1%. However, when EFP MR-TOF is applied as a single mass spectrometer, the spectral decoding does limit the dynamic range under 1E+4 due to densely populated chemical background.
Modern ion sources are capable of delivering up to 1E+10 ions/second (1.6 nA) into mass spectrometers. The spectral population before any decoding approaches 30-50% if accounting signal in 1E+5 dynamic range. The prior art EFP methods becomes not suitable to acquire huge ion fluxes in full dynamic range.
This disclosure proposes an improvement of EFP-MR-TOF by (a) using an upfront lossless and crude mass separation in time; gas dampening of the mass separated ion flow; frequent pulsing of an orthogonal accelerator at period between ejection pulses being much shorter than the flight time of heaviest ions in MR-TOF; and using a detector with an extended dynamic range and life-time to handle ion fluxes up to 1E+10 ion/sec. The lossless first cascade separator may be a trap array followed by wide bore ion transfer channel, or a trap array pulsed converter with a wide-open crude TOF separator followed by a soft dampening cell, primarily, surface induced dissociation (SID) cell, operating at low collision energy under 10-20 eV.
Comprehensive MS-MS (C-MS-MS)
For reliable and specific analyte identification, tandem mass spectrometers operate as follows: parent ions are selected in a first mass spectrometer and get fragmented in a fragmentation cell, such as collisional induced dissociation (CID) cell; then fragment ion spectra are recorded in a second mass spectrometer. Conventional tandem instruments, like quadrupole-TOF (Q-TOF), filter a narrow mass range while rejecting all others. When analyzing complex mixtures, sequential separation of multiple m/z ranges slows down the acquisition and affects sensitivity. In order to increase speed and sensitivity of MS-MS analysis, so-called “comprehensive”, “parallel”, or “all-mass” tandems have been described: Trap-TOF in U.S. Pat. No. 6,504,148 and WO01/15201, TOF-TOF in WO2004008481, and LT-TOF in U.S. Pat. No. 7,507,953, all incorporated herein by reference.
However, none of prior art comprehensive MS-MS is capable of solving the task of tandem MS improvement compared to filtering tandems, which defeats the purpose of parallel MS-MS. Multiple limitations do not allow operating with the entire ion flow up to 1E+10 ions/sec coming from ion sources. Thus, the gain of parallel analysis in the first MS is cancelled by ion losses at MS1 entrance and the overall sensitivity and speed (limited primarily by signal intensity for minor components) do not exceed those in conventional filtering Q-TOF.
Brief estimates are provided to support the statement. In Q-TOF the duty cycle of MS1 is 1% to provide standard resolution R1=100 of parent mass selection. The duty cycle of TOF is in the order of 10-20% at resolution of R2˜50,000. Recent trends in MS-MS analysis demonstrate that such level of R2 gives substantial advantage in MS-MS data reliability, i.e. lower R2 should not be considered for MS-MS, which sets the lower limit for TOF period as 300 us . Thus the overall merits for comparison are: DC=0.1% and R=50,00 at incoming ion flow of 1E+10 ion/sec. In an exemplar MS-MS as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,507,953, time required for recording fragment spectra of a single parent ion fraction is at least 1 ms (3 TOF spectra per parent mass fraction). To provide R1=100 of parent mass separation, the scan time is no less than 100 ms . Accounting space charge capacity of single linear ion trap N=3E+5 ion/cycle, the overall charge throughput is 3E+6 ions/sec. Accounting 1E+10 ion/sec incoming flow, the overall duty cycle of LT-TOF in U.S. Pat. No. 7,507,953 equals to 0.03% which is lower compared to above estimated Q-TOF tandem. Since the purpose and the task of parallel MS-MS are not solved, the tandem of U.S. Pat. No. 7,507,953 becomes no more than combination of prior known solutions: LT for extending space charge capacity, RF channel for transferring ion flow past the trap, TOF for parallel recording of all masses, and tandem of trap with TOF for parallel operation; while providing a novel component—RF channel for collecting ions past linear trap.
This disclosure proposes a solution for the task of comprehensive MS-MS analysis with the efficiency far exceeding one of filtering tandems, like Q-TOF. The same above proposed tandem (lossless mass separator and EFP MR-TOF) further comprises a fragmentation cell in-between the mass-spectrometric cascades. In case of trap array, the wide bore dampening transfer channel is followed by an RF converging channel, such as ion funnel, and the ions are introduced into a CID cell, e.g. made of resistive multipole for rapid ion transfer. In case of crude TOF separator, the SID cell is employed with delayed pulsed extraction.
The proposed MS-EFP-MRTOF and MS-CID/SID-EFP-MRTOF tandems would suffer the same problem (of defeating the purpose) if any of the tandem components fail handling ion flux above 1E+10 ions/sec at separation and 1E+9 ion/sec at detection. Apparently, neither prior art trap mass spectrometers, nor crude TOF separators, nor TOF detectors and data systems are capable of handling ion fluxes of 1E+9 to 1E+10 ions/sec. Novel instruments becomes practical only with introduction of multiple novel components in the present invention.
Parallel Mass Separators:
Analytical quadrupole mass analyzers (Q-MS) operate as a mass filter passing through one m/z specie while removing all other species. To improve the duty cycle, ion trap mass spectrometers (ITMS) operate in cycles—ions of all m/z are injected into the trap and then are released sequentially in mass. The mass dependent ion ejection is achieved by ramping of the RF amplitude and with the support of the auxiliary AC signal which promotes the ejection of particular species by resonant excitation of their secular motion. The disadvantage of ITMS is in slow scanning speed (100-1000 ms per scan) and small space charge capacity—less than 3E+3 in 3D traps and less than 3E+5 in linear ion traps. Accounting 0.1-1 sec per scan, the maximal throughput is limited under 3E+6 ion/sec.
Q-Trap mass spectrometers operate with mass selective ejection via the repelling trap edge. To eject ions over the edge barrier, a radial secular motion of particular m/z ions is selectively excited within a linear quadrupole. Due to slow scanning (0.3-1 sec per scan) the throughput of Q-Traps is under 3E+6 ion/sec. The MSAE traps operate at 1E−5 Tor vacuum, which complicates the downstream ion collection and dampening.
This disclosure proposes novel mass separator comprising an array of radio-frequency traps (TA), operating at elevated gas pressures from 10 to 100 mTor Helium, so that to collect ions emitted from a large area (e.g. 10×10 cm) within approximately 1 ms time. In one embodiment, an individual trap is a novel type mass analyzer comprising a quadrupole radiofrequency (RF) trap with radial ion ejection by quadrupolar DC field. In an embodiment, preferably, the array may be arranged on the cylindrical centerline, so that ions are ejected inward the cylinder. Alternatively, ion emitting surfaces may be either plane, or partially cylindrical or spherical.
In another embodiment, the TA comprises an array of linear ion traps with resonant and radial ion ejection. Preferably, the array may be arranged either on a cylindrical centerline and the ejected ions are radial trapped and axial driven within a wide bore cylindrical gas dampening cell. Alternatively, the array is arranged within a plane and the ejected ions are collected by a wide bore ion funnel or an ion tunnel. Preferably, the trap array may be filled with Helium at 10-30 mTor gas pressure.
In a group of embodiments, a fragmentation cell, such as CID cell, is proposed between said trap array and the EFP-MR-TOF for comprehensive, all-mass MS-MS analysis.
Trap arrays with approximately 100 channels of 10 cm long are capable of handling 1E+8 ions per cycle. The EFP method allows rapid time profiling of the incoming ion flow at 10 us time resolution, which in turn allows dropping TA cycle time down to 10 ms , this way bringing the trap array throughput to 1E+10 ions/sec.
Resistive Ion Guides
Fast ion transfer may be effectively arranged within RF ion guides with superimposed axial DC gradient. Prior art resistive ion guides suffer from practical limitations, such as instability of thin resistive films or RF suppression within bulk ferrites. The present invention proposes an improved resistive ion guide employing bulk carbon filled resistors of SiC or B4C materials, improved RF coupling with DC insulated conductive tracks, while using standard RF circuit with DC supply via central taps of secondary RF coils.
TOF Detectors:
A majority of present time-of-flight detectors, like dual microchannel plate (MCP) and secondary electron multipliers (SEM) have life time measuring 1 Coulomb of the output charge. Accounting for 1E+6 detector gains, the detector may serve less than 1000 seconds at 1E+10 ion flux. A Daly detector is long known, wherein ions hit metal converter and secondary electrons are collected by electrostatic field onto a scintillator, followed by a photo multiplier tube (PMT). The life time of sealed PMT can be as high as 300 C. However, the detector introduces significant time spread (tens of nanoseconds) and introduces bogus signals due to formation negative secondary ions.
An alternative hybrid TOF detector comprises sequentially connected microchannel plate (MCP), scintillator and PMT. However, both MCP and scintillator fail under 1 C. Scintillators are degraded due to destruction of sub-micron metal coating. Accounting lower gain of single stage MCP (1E+3), the life time extends to 1E+6 seconds (one month) at 1E+10 ions/sec flux.
To overcome prior art limitations, this disclosure proposes an isochronous Daly detector with an improved scintillator. Secondary electrons are steered by a magnetic field and are directed onto a scintillator. The scintillator is covered by metal mesh to ensure charge removal. Two photo multipliers collect secondary photons at different solid angles, thus improving dynamic range of the detector. At least one-high gain PMT has conventional circuitry for limiting electron avalanche current. The life-time of the novel detector is estimated above 1E+7 seconds (1 year) at 1E+10 ions/sec flux, thus making the above described tandems practical.
Data System:
Conventional TOF MS employ an integrating ADC, wherein signal is integrated over multiple waveforms, synchronized with TOF start pulses. The data flux is reduced proportionally to number of waveforms per spectrum to match the speed of the signal transfer bus into a PC. Such data system naturally matches TOF MS requirements, since weak ion signals require waveform integration to detect minor species.
The EFP-MRTOF requires retaining time course information of the rapidly changing waveform during the tandem cycle and recording of long waveforms (up to 100 ms ). Long waveforms may be summed during integration time, which is still shorter compared to time of chromatographic separation. In case of using gas chromatography (GC) with lsec peaks, the integration time should be notably shorter, say 0.1-0.3 second. Thus, limited number of waveforms (3-30) can be integrated. To reduce the data flow via bus, preferably the signal may be zero-filtered. Alternatively, a zero-filtered signal may be transferred into a PC in so-called data logging mode, wherein non-zero data strings are recorded along with the laboratory time stamp. Preferably, the signal is on-the-fly analyzed and compressed with either multi-core PC or with multi-core processors, such as video cards.
Conclusion:
The proposed set of solutions is expected to provide MS-only and C-MS-MS at high R2=100,000 resolution and high (˜10%) duty cycle of MR-TOF for 1E+10 ion/sec ion flux, thus, substantially improving a variety of mass spectrometric devices as compared to the prior art.